`Anumati` tops at New York Indian Film Festival

New York: ‘Anumati’ directed by Gajendra Ahire has won the Best Feature Film award at the New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) with Vikram Gokhale getting the Best Actor award for his role as a desperate husband.

The winners were chosen from 18 narrative, 10 documentaries (feature length or shorter) and 8 shorts from the Indian subcontinent and its diaspora featured at the festival, which ran April 30 - May 4.

Director Hansal Mehta took home the Best Director of a Feature Film award for his compelling film ‘Shahid’, which traces the true story of slain human rights activist lawyer Shahid Azmi.

Suraj Negi was honoured as the Best Young Actor in a Feature Film for his role as the titular character in ‘Hansa’.

Deepti Naval was also honoured in her role as Leela Krishnamoorthy, a middle aged widow, in debut filmmaker Avinash Kumar Singh`s ‘Listen Amaya’.

Malayalam cinema filmmaker/writer Biju was awarded for Best Screenplay for his vision in ‘Kashathinte Niram’ (Colour of Sky), and the Best Documentary award went to ‘The Only Real Game’, directed by Mirra Bank.

Best Short Film award went to ‘Khaana’, directed by Cary Sawhney.

A new award for the one-minute cell phone Bollywood film short based on popular Bollywood sound tracks went to ‘Bollywood Style’ directed by Yi Su, a New York University student.